If you are going to fight – don’t slap

Temperance is one of the fruits of the Spirit packing the most anti-oxidants. It fights toxic materials.

We need temperance in the church. Because God called us to make disciples not clones.

You rarely see eye to eye with yourself, let alone others.

In most tribes there are a wide variety of sub-cultures that develop inside of the main culture. This is natural and normal. It is healthy as long as the mission of the tribe and its values isn’t compromised.

Openhanded Combat

Romans 14 speaks about temperance. None of the issues that are mentioned in this chapter are closed hand principles. Closed hand truths are not up for debate or compromise. Openhanded truths are given liberty and latitude. These would include worship style, eschatology, and the like.

It’s wise to know the difference. Don’t go to war over openhanded principles. If you are going to fight, make sure you are using a fist and not slapping like … that’s a joke.

Why do so many people fight over openhanded issues? These are fights in which the devil enjoys a ringside seat with a leavened pretzel and grape juice.

Why are you fighting with your brother in the first place? Generally this fighting takes place via Social Media outlets and other cowardly ways to battle.

When did being willing to tell somebody off become a virtue? Should bragging rights be given to keyboard jockeys that have the time to copy and paste quotes from their favorite websites?

It all serves to derail a churches vision and distract us from the real mission of reaching unreached people.

I said that to say this: I hope you don’t beat up people this year for having a Christmas tree in their house.

We will have one in our house. We didn’t carve on it. We sure don’t worship it. It isn’t an idol to us.

Definitely not like the worship that is given to dogmatic opinions. If you want to talk idol worship, talk about that.

A Better Way

Have your opinion and let’s dialogue. Dialogue unlike debate, isn’t about winning, it’s about gaining perspective. I like to understand where other people are coming from.

Let our pattern for temperance be based on the Mercy Seat. For the sake of this discussion, let’s take the angels off and put us in their place.

Mercy was their platform.

The Glory was their focus.

They weren’t looking at each other. Therefore, they didn’t see eye to eye.